The Nine Best Concerts in New York City This Weekend, 3/6/15

March 6, 2015

Friday, 3/6BeardymanBowery Ballroom
9 p.m., $20
You’ve never seen a show like a Beardyman show. A human beatboxing machine, Beardyman uses his voice to craft vocal loops in real time, creating an electronic music experience that puts even the wildest raves to shame. Unlike the mystery and confusion surrounding exactly how much work DJ’ing really involves, Beardyman’s live performance shows him building vocal tracks one step at a time into club-ready drum’n’bass-, techno-, and dubstep-inspired tracks. Since earning the title of U.K. Beatbox Champion in 2006, Beardyman has toured the world, bringing his electronic take on the age-old concept of the one-man band. — Lina Abascal

THEESatisfactionSantos Party House
8 p.m., $13/$15
Before this Seattle/Brooklyn alterna-r&b duo hit the road with Sub Pop labelmates Sleater-Kinney later this spring, they’re stopping by Santos Party House to celebrate the release of their sophomore LP, EarthEE. The album includes cameos from their port-city pals in Shabazz Palaces and a heavy helping of mid-Seventies Stevie Wonder synths, on top of which Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White rhyme about gentrification, race, and other kitchen-table issues. — Chris Kornelis

Chelsea Nights Concert SeriesThe Chelsea Market
First Friday of Every Month, 7 p.m., FREE
Ever since it got cozy with the High Line in 2009, Chelsea Market has solidified its status as the classiest shopping mall that ever there was — where else can you pry into top-notch lobster while enjoying the sprawling vistas of an Anthropologie store? It also houses the Food Network studios, which would surely make it a foodie’s paradise if the shops peddling artisanal cheeses, crepes, wines, and other vaguely French-sounding stuff didn’t already. It’s a place you want to hang out long after you’re finished ingesting, and now you can. Friday, February 6, marks the launch of Chelsea Nights: A Concert Series, in which Brooklyn’s Paper Garden Records will present its budding talent. Openers include Salt Cathedral, Little Strike, and Stranger Cat, who combine the earthy sounds of tambourine with out-of-this-world synth lines. — Heather Baysa

HozierBeacon Theatre
8 p.m., $35–$45
Inescapable but irresistible, Hozier‘s hit single, “Take Me to Church,” has over 222 million Spotify streams and more than 25 million YouTube views, and earned a Grammy nod for Song of the Year (losing to Sam Smith). Not bad for a 24-year-old Irish singer-songwriter who, less than two years ago, was a struggling pub/street musician in Dublin. The darkly emotive video for “Take Me to Church” struck a chord with its scenes/themes of gay oppression, but live, Andrew Hozier-Byrne will prove he has more than one haunting, eloquent song. (To wit, there’s 53 minutes of them on his 2014 self-titled debut, including the stellar “Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene.”) The show is open to all ages and starts at 8 p.m. with a set from George Ezra. — Katherine Turman
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Gang of FourPhoto by Leo Cackett

Saturday, 3/7BjörkCarnegie Hall
12 p.m., $45–$150
With a new album (the heartbreaking breakup record Vulnicura), a MoMA retrospective, eight shows in New York, and an upcoming appearance at Governors Ball, this is the season of the ever-experimental Icelandic artist Björk. Her NYC residency kicks off at Carnegie Hall on March 7, the same day her career-spanning MoMA retrospective opens. Joining her at these intimate shows will be a fifteen-piece orchestra and the percussionist Manu Delago. Arca, the Venezuelan producer and musician who collaborated with Björk on Vulnicura, will be joining her for the matinee shows. The shows are all sold out, but tickets are available on the secondary market. — Karen Gardiner

Gang of FourIrving Plaza
7 p.m., $25
Arguably one of the most politically minded progenitors of postpunk, Gang of Four are touring once again, this time in support of their latest record, What Happens Next. Though Andy Gill is the only original member still active these days, the band’s newest single, “Broken Talk,” builds on the elements that brought the band to prominence: ardent drumming and jagged guitar work. It gets some extra heft from the Kills’ Alison Mosshart, who lent vocals to several tracks on the LP, so it will be interesting to see how those songs play out live — special guest appearance, maybe? Find out at Irving Plaza on Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance and the show is sixteen and up. Get there early for NYC’s own Public Access TV, whose rollicking, brash sound is no doubt indebted to the headliners. — Lindsey Rhoades

Sunday, 3/8Dropkick MurphysIrving Plaza
Saturday & Sunday, 7 p.m., $33.50
If you haven’t heard Dropkick Murphys, then frankly, you aren’t listening hard enough. When they’re not busy collecting well-earned royalties from having their music in seemingly every Boston-based movie or beer commercial, they’re sure to be on tour in a city near you. Their latest — the Celtic Punk Invasion Tour with Irish punk acts the Mahones and Blood or Whiskey — brings a little luck of the Irish to Irving Plaza before the band heads home for its annual Boston shows, followed by a St. Paddy’s doubleheader in Dublin. With a new album on the way and an upcoming Las Vegas performance of their debut album, Do or Die, “invasion” may just well be the most apt term. All three shows are standing room only and are open to everyone sixteen and older. Tickets are available through Live Nation or on the secondary market for the sold-out March 8 show. — Ashley Steves

“We Are the Music Makers” NYPL Dorothy And Lewis B. Cullman Center
Monday–Sunday, 12 p.m., FREE
The Music Maker Relief Foundation, in association with Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Americanafest NYC, presents a multimedia exhibition to educate and engage viewers in the cultural history of Southern traditional music. “We Are the Music Makers” features photo and audio documentation of Southern roots musicians active in the past twenty years, all photographed and recorded by Tim Duffy, the Foundation’s founder, in his quest to preserve the form by partnering with the artists who make it. The multimedia materials will highlight questions of how poverty, geography, and age have limited the exposure of these artists, giving rise to the widespread notion that the musical traditions they perform have “died out.”

Red BaraatBrooklyn Bowl
8 p.m., $15
The thunderous local drums-and-brass ensemble Red Baraat presents its sixth annual Festival of Colors, led by Sunny Jain, whose double-headed dhol drum serves as its heartbeat. The group expands India’s wedding-band template into a more inclusively throbbing caterwaul, evocative of joyous brass-band cultures from New Orleans to the Balkans, but with a Bollywood bent. Expect music from their new Gaadi of Truth. Their colorful guests include San Francisco reggae-raga-“rockabolly” outfit Rupa & the April Fishes, and Indian classical-music experimentalists Brooklyn Raga Massive. — Richard Gehr